Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
by Storm Aurastar
Summary: It all begins when Chico mysteriously vanishes from Mother Base… An amateur novelization of the video game. Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk. Highly recommended for those who couldn't get the game (like myself). R&R! ON HIATUS…?
1. The Capture

_**Welcome to my first **_**Metal Gear_ fanfic! Well, it's not exactly a _fanfic_ per se__**_**_—it's just a novelization of _**_**_****Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes_, the newest_ MGS_ game and__ prologue to _The Phantom Pain_. Let's just say Raymond Benson and Project Itoh inspired me to do this**__… I've never written anything related to __**_**Metal Gear_ before, so I hope all goes well._********

********_Warning: Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk._********

******_**__Enjoy.__**_******

**DISCLAIMER: Everything here belongs to Konami and Kojima Productions.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Capture**

* * *

He was breathing heavily as he trudged up the sloping hill, the dirt beneath his small feet threatening to give way with each step. Tiny droplets of rain fell from the dull gray sky, sticking onto his face, hair, and eyelashes. Each time he blinked, more water would cling to his eyelashes and blur his vision. It annoyed him somewhat, but at least it was not pouring. Not yet.

He had gone a long, long way from Santiago de Cuba to this place. He knew very well that he should not even be here. He shuddered when he wondered what his boss would say to him when he returned to the base… Then again, he might not even be able to get out of here.

_No,_ he thought firmly, shaking his head. _I _will_ return…along with _her_. Boss_…_Amanda…no te preocupes_…__

With a heavy heart, he remembered that he was supposed to meet with his sister in Havana, more than 500 miles away from his current position. But he had had a plan long before boarding that boat to Havana.

A dangerous plan.

A reckless plan.

He had trekked through the 60-mile mountainous terrain between Santiago and his destination. Even if he wanted to turn back, it was far too late.

_I must keep going._

The rain continued to fly into his face. He wiped it away with a dirty hand and hurried onward, careful to stay close to the grass-covered ground. He peered into the distance.

There it was. Those bright lights blatantly told him so.

A U.S. naval base. A prison camp.

He swallowed nervously, his forehead beaded with sweat. With shaking hands, he withdrew something from his pocket—a small audio cassette player called a Walkman. It was the only thing he had brought with him to record his journey. He stared at the lights for a few more seconds before pressing a button.

"I made it ashore."

The fear was evident in his voice. He swallowed again, his forehead beaded with sweat. His forest green eyes darted left and right as he muttered, "I'm in Cuba. Security looks lighter than I thought."

He prayed that he was right about the security.

"…I wonder where Paz is."

He took a couple more steps forward, grimacing at the loud crunching of the dirt beneath his boots. He was surprised to hear the distinct chirping of crickets. It calmed him a little.

"It's dark, but there are soldiers everywhere. Lots of choppers coming and going," he added when the sound of spinning rotor blades entered his ears. "Those lights are so bright."

A helicopter passed overhead, and he flattened himself along the grassy ground to give himself a bit of cover. He glanced to his right and nearly let out a gasp when he spotted a soldier, his rifle positioned in front of his chest.

"…Time to get moving."

He slowly stood up and shuffled down the hill, which, fortunately, was not too steep. He sneaked closer to the camp until he was about fifty feet away from the chain link fence. Thank goodness the grass was a little taller here.

"I got close to the fence to see if I could spot her," he spoke into the Walkman. "They had a guard posted, so I got outta there. Guess security's not so light after all…"

So much for light security.

The crickets continued to chirp as he murmured, "I'm coming, Paz…"

He went onto his stomach and slowly crawled closer to the fence, attempting to mimic the silent maneuvers that his boss was so good at.

"I'm okay…"

Just a few more feet.

"I'm okay," he reassured himself. "I'm… I'm okay—"

There she was.

Forgetting all the concepts of stealth that his boss had taught him, he shot back onto his feet and pounded toward the fence.

"I think I found her!" he practically shouted.

He grunted several times as he closed the distance between himself and the camp.

"It's gotta be Paz!"

A dog barked.

He came to a halt and looked left and right, his heart pounding wildly.

There.

Two soldiers.

"No, no, _no_—"

He quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"They're looking for me—"

He couldn't get caught now! He was already so far in! If he failed, Paz would never be rescued from this hellhole. Worse yet, she could end up getting killed.

He ran faster than ever, hoping that he would not trip over his own feet. The dirt slid and shifted beneath him, but he was somehow able to keep balance. The dogs sounded even closer now. It would not be for long before he was captured.

_No! I can't get myself caught! Paz could die if I do!_

He stumbled over a tangled knot of grass and fell forward. Quickly throwing out his hands, he managed to break his fall, but not without hurting his left wrist in the process. He lay motionless on the ground, the grass partially covering his trembling body. The Walkman was still recording.

"Did you hear that?"

He held his breath as the two soldiers from before entered the edge of his field of vision. There were no dogs with them, but their rifles frightened him.

"Like…some sort of _thump_ or somethin'? I could've sworn I did."

They were somewhere to his right, maybe less than ten feet away.

_Oh, no…_

"Well, whatever it was, I don't see it now. It was probably just some animal that got spooked by the dogs."

A snort. "Yeah, yeah…sure. Let's go back to the post."

By now, his heart was beating so loudly that he thought the soldiers could hear it. But apparently, they did not, for now they were turning around and going back to wherever they were before they began to pursue him.

_…They're leaving. Now's my chance!_

He stood up.

The soldier pointed.

"Over there!"

He bolted, but the soldier lunged at him far faster than he had anticipated. Suddenly, he found himself pinned to the ground. He kicked at the man that overshadowed him, attempting to free himself.

"Enough," the soldier snapped, effortlessly holding down his limbs. "Quit that struggling."

He continued to kick at him as though he had not heard anything. The soldier just scowled and muttered an oath before grabbing both his wrists with his large, strong hands. A couple of slaps was enough to stop his squirming.

"Got him secured." The soldier peered a little closer at him and confirmed in a rather incredulous voice, "…It's a kid."

"What the hell is a kid doin' here?" asked the other soldier just as disbelievingly.

"No idea," he replied. "But let's take him in, anyway. Nowadays, just about anyone can be a spy."

The companion nodded and agreed, "True that."

Nowhere to run.

No place to hide.

He had no choice but to go with them.

-ooo-

_Koi no yokushiryoku_  
_Hora GAME ga hajimaru_  
_Mitsumeaeba wakaru desho?_  
_Hajimari no BERU ga naru_

_Love deterrence  
Look! It's the beginning of the game  
Look at these straightforward thoughts  
Now I'm overflowing and I start to run_

-ooo-

He cried.

"I'm…"

The Walkman was still recording.

"I got caught…" he whispered.

He glanced left and right.

"…I-I'm in a cage," he said with a slight stammer. "They gave me back my recorder… At least whoever finds this will know what happened…"

The other prisoners sat motionlessly in their cages, silent and miserable like lifeless animals.

"They're holding others here, too. But…still no sign of Paz…"

He let out a sharp gasp when he saw two soldiers approaching his cage. Between them, barely conscious, was another person, probably 20 years old or so, bare feet dragging across the rough dirt. Despite that her hair had been all but shaven, he immediately knew it was a girl. The soldiers opened the cage next to his and tossed her in. He tried to hold back his tears when she let out a pained cry.

The door to her cage slammed shut, and the soldiers marched away.

The girl breathed heavily, struggling to stay awake. After what seemed like an eternity, she weakly lifted her head just a little to see who the prisoner next door was.

"…Ch… Chi…co…?"

He was stunned.

"P… Paz…?!"

Ricardo Valenciano Libre felt like sobbing when Pacifica Ocean gave him the faintest of smiles before she slowly closed her sea-blue eyes.

She gratefully breathed, _"…Chico…"_

* * *

_**…And there you have it. I hope that was all right.**_

_**Chapter 2 will be coming…eh, I dunno. Whenever I feel like it, I guess.**_

_**REVIEWS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!**_**  
**


	2. The Letter

**_I admit that this chapter came a _bit_ later than expected (yes, five months is a bit), but hey, better late than never, right?_**

_**Anyway, here's the second chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it. (To be honest, I like the first chapter a lot more…)**_

**DISCLAIMER: Nothing here belongs to me! Moving along**…****

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**Chapter 2: The Letter**

* * *

Sometimes, Snake felt like he was the only member of MSF who knew how good a cigar tasted in the morning.

Some of the medics of his private military company, Militaires Sans Frontières—French for "Soldiers Without Borders" and MSF for short—told him multiple times of the harmful effects of smoking. He didn't give a damn, however. The nicotine helped him concentrate and relax. Other soldiers complained about the smell; he just told them to deal with it.

"Really, Boss…you should think about quitting."

He just exasperatedly rolled his one remaining eye (he had lost his left eye eleven years ago) as a man with ash-blond hair and wearing a yellow scarf, an olive-green guerrilla outfit, and bronze-tinted sunglasses approached him. "Not anytime soon, Kaz."

Kazuhira Miller chuckled quietly as he adjusted his signature sunglasses. "Fine. Have it your way, Boss." He then decided to change the subject. "Snake…yesterday, we received official communication from the IAEA."

_Getting right to the point as always,_ Snake thought as he said slowly, "The International Atomic Energy Agency, huh…"

"Yeah, that's it. It says…" Kaz pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from one of his pockets. He spread it out, tried to flatten the creases the best he could, gave up with that, and read, "'It has come to our attention that your organization recently purchased nuclear fuel from Uzbekistan authorities. We request permission to inspect your facilities.'"

Snake's response was instantaneous.

"What a load of bullshit."

"Yeah," Kaz agreed with a nod. "They're after Metal Gear ZEKE's nuclear warhead."

After the Peace Walker Incident last November, MSF's R&amp;D Team had salvaged the parts of Peace Walker, a massive AI weapon with an AI modeled after a certain World War II hero's mind and thought processing. Using the parts, the team constructed a bipedal war machine, mounted a nuclear missile onto its frame, and named it Metal Gear ZEKE, the "ZEKE" part of its name coming from a Japanese fighter jet used during World War II, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

"I'm betting this is payback from Cipher after _Paz_'s leak." The second-in-command spat out the name in disgust.

Cipher… Paz… Even now, Snake couldn't quite get over the fact that Paz Ortega Andrade—Pacifica Ocean, rather—was an enemy, an affiliate of the mysterious organization called Cipher. The young woman who called herself "an angel of peace" had nearly launched a nuke at the East Coast of the United States, attempting to frame Snake and MSF in being an extremist cult. Had she succeeded, the whole world would stop at nothing to annihilate MSF.

_"There is no 'happily ever after' waiting for you in the end. Unless__…you obey the will of _Cipher_!"_

He had the strangest notion that he knew exactly what "Cipher" referred to.

No… Not _what_. More like _who_.

"Using the UN?" he commented as he exhaled another cloud of cigar smoke.

"There's no telling how much influence they have," replied Kaz as he folded the paper and stuck it back in his pocket. "But the IAEA can only do inspections in countries that are party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty."

"And we're not a _country_," said Snake, putting some emphasis on "country".

"Exactly. We haven't signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA over peaceful nuclear use, and we're not obligated to report any nuclear material we have, nor information about any nuclear facilities. The IAEA has _no_ authority to inspect us," Kaz stated firmly.

Snake nodded absentmindedly. "But despite all that…"

Kaz shrugged and looked over the vast blue Caribbean Sea. "That nuke's our last line of defense," he muttered as he thought about MSF's Metal Gear. "We don't want to announce we have it until the world is preparing to wipe us off the map. Until then, we let everyone think that we're just a private army with conventional firepower."

"Mmm." Snake stuck the cigar in his mouth, his right hand subconsciously reaching for his forehead. With a sudden jolt of realization, he jerked it back.

_Damn…_

Kaz's sharp eyes did not miss the subtle movement. "Still can't really get over it, huh?" He sighed. "That was four months ago."

"It just feels so…how should I say it…_different_, I guess," Snake said, remembering that he had no bandana now. "I'd worn it since 1964."

"Operation Snake Eater… Named so because you had to kill the Cobra Unit. The mission in which your main objective was to assassinate your mentor, The Boss."

The Boss…also known as The Joy, founder of the Cobra Unit, renowned as heroes of World War II. She had seemingly defected to the Soviet Union, and Snake—then known as Naked Snake—was sent in to kill her. It was not until after the mission that he learned of the truth behind Operation Snake Eater: The Boss had been under orders to pretend to defect so she could find the location of the Philosopher's Legacy and bring it back to America. The final part of her mission was to sacrifice her honor and die at the hands of Snake, under the guise of a traitor, to prove America's innocence in the nuclear attack about a week earlier.

Her country had used her, and it had done the same to her student.

_We're not tools of the government…or anyone else…_

Snake shook these thoughts out of his mind and turned back to Kaz. "…So. What's Huey's take on the inspection?" he asked, referring to the wheelchair-confined scientist.

"That the problem's how to hide the nuke and Metal Gear," said Kaz. "But I gotta tell you, he was all for it."

"You mean he supported it?"

"Apparently so."

"I see…" Snake said, glancing at his cigar before tossing it onto the ground and stepping on it to snuff out the flame. "But there's _no way_ we can have the IAEA poking around here."

"So what do we do? Ignore 'em?"

"No. That would only make us look more suspicious." Snake mulled it over for a couple seconds before making his decision. "Send them an official letter of refusal. Say that we're a private organization, and we've done _nothing_ to attract this suspicion."

MSF's second-in-command saluted him with a quick nod. "You got it, Boss."

-ooo-

Huey Emmerich was ecstatic.

"…and we also finished ZEKE's waterproofing reinforcement yesterday," he rattled on, unaware of the increasing irritation that showed on Snake's face. "The day after tomorrow we'll be done installing the main depth control tank, the compressed air tank, and the attitude control propeller pod."

"Huey…" Snake growled.

The wheelchair-confined scientist did not seem to hear him. "And if the underwater test goes well, next week we'll try the 300-foot seabed d—"

_"Huey!"_

He immediately shut up when Snake snapped at him.

"Drop the act, Huey," the mercenary said threateningly. "Now tell me, how the hell did we end up _agreeing_ to the nuclear inspection?"

Huey gulped nervously, wondering why his boss was so incensed. "…Uh…because…after you sent that letter, I told them…'After careful reconsideration, we agree to your request.' A-and frankly, we _should_ be inspected!" he added hurriedly before Snake could say anything. "This is our chance! If they come and go without discovering the nuke, we can tell the world we're _clean_." He paused. "…Of course it's risky, and we'll have to make sure everything's perfect. But trust me, it'll be fine."

Snake and Kaz glanced at each other, their expressions a mixture of shock and dismay. Then Snake looked back to Huey.

"Huey, can they do an inspection without going through the Board of Governors?" he asked brusquely.

"We contacted the IAEA's admin branch, and they said there's no record of us being brought up in any of the Board's meetings," Kaz told him.

"Uhh… I-I'd say…probably a preliminary inspection to determine whether we should be referred to the Board," Huey suggested, stammering a little. "So it's bound to be a _small_ inspection team, and they won't be here that long. D-don't worry…" He pointed to himself and tried his best to smile reassuredly. "Just leave everything to me."

Snake was quiet for a moment. Then, in a voice that was barely audible, he muttered, "_That's_ what worries me the most."

Huey just looked at his hands, not making a sound. For a few minutes, the three men were silent, the only sound coming from the waves that crashed against the many struts of Mother Base.

"…Has the media gotten wind of this?" Kaz suddenly asked, shattering the awkward silence.

"Oh, yeah!" Huey cheerfully confirmed. "Two major Western networks want to do stories on us." He paused before continuing, "I'd planned on saying yes—"

Snake just stared at him. Kaz outright exploded.

"_WHAT?!_ You wanna broadcast this place to the _world_?!"

"_That's_ why I agreed to the inspection!" Huey explained, trying not to cringe in the shadows of the two men towering over him. "This is a golden opportunity. We can use the media to prove that we don't have a nuke! And besides, even if we just said no, it would just be delaying the inevitable."

_Shit,_ thought Snake. _I just knew something like this would happen. Guess we don't have a choice now…_ He grunted before turning to Kaz. "Nngh… Kaz, our hands are tied now." He narrowed his eye toward Huey before ordering, "Start getting the place ready."

Huey let out a quiet sigh of relief. "…Thanks, Boss."

Snake glared at him, making him tense up once again. "Don't get the wrong idea," he told him bluntly. "You've set it up so that any more 'changes of heart' will arouse more suspicion, that's all."

The scientist flushed deeply and said nothing.

Kaz was already making plans. "Hmm… ZEKE stays, but we'll have to move all other AFVs to shore…" He threw a glance in the direction of the barracks. "Any potential troublemakers can go with them for some mandatory R&amp;R…" He turned back to Snake. "Sound good, Boss?"

By now, the mercenary's only wish was for everyone to just shut the hell up.

"Just…_do it_," he snarled through tightly clenched teeth.

Kaz frowned, a little alarmed by his boss' sour mood, and hastily scurried off to start bullying the MSF soldiers about cleaning up Mother Base as quickly as possible.

_I swear, if anything goes wrong…_ Snake watched the back of Huey's head as the scientist hastily departed on his wheelchair. _If just _one_ thing goes wrong…_

He had an ominous feeling that everything would spiral downward from here on.

* * *

**_…Am I the only one here who still sees "AFV" and thinks of "America's Funniest Videos"?_  
**

**_If you noticed, I put a quote from _MGS1_ up there_… Honestly, I don't really care if Gray Fox said that in 2005 and this story takes place in 1975.__**

**Col. Campbell:** Time paradox!

**_Shut up!_**

**_Chapter 3 will be coming out whenever I feel like it. Which means it'll be a while before then._**


End file.
